bowling

Wednesday, 10 August 2016

Child sex abuse inquiry and media spin

Brian Gerrish pulls together a number of articles from the mainstream which covers the child sex abuse inquiry and discusses the topic with Alex Thomson on UK Column News in the latter half of the programme. [9 August 2016]

"Is this the most toxic job description in public life? BBC are asking whether the Goddard chair of the abuse inquiry is the most toxic job description in public life? And this is how they deal with it: `Established in 2014, the IICSA is not simply a public inquiry, it is a vast, six-decade retrospective exercise in national soul-searching`. Just have a think about what that really means."

"`There is little doubt that children were sexually abused in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond, across many public and private institutions.` A remarkable statement from the BBC that had difficulty believing there was abuse inside the BBC over that period`....Then they say: `It took a series of scandals, most notably that of serial child abuser Jimmy Savile, to really change perceptions. The IICSA must delve into the national psyche and institutions of decades past, and carry out extensive examinations of how they operated in relation to children`."

"So this is all, `abuse is somebody else`s problem, not the BBC`s`. It all took place in the past. We need to have a little look at it and see where they failed. Then we`ll learn from the mistakes and carry on abusing the children. I`ve got to say Alex when I read this particular headline, the BBC has become the most disgusting organisation in their double dealing on... child abuse issues."

"Yes Brian and I would put the Daily Mail in second place. And what ties them together is that you have had personal dealings with BBC and Daily Mail journalists, perhaps more than any other outlets: saying `Would you like to talk to our sources on child abuse?` And they have said: `No, No, No`. And eventually they`ve said: `Mr Gerrish, please hand over your sources and stay out of it,` basically. You know, `Hand this to the big boys.` And that BBC piece by the correspondent you`ve shared is very similar to one in the Daily Mail a few days ago, after Goddard resigns, who basically said at the end, `Of course we can`t believe the victims; it is far too big a job for one person`s intellect; and we ought not to have an inquiry after all`."

Gerrish agrees, "It`s all too difficult, except if they want to pin the label on who the abusers are; so bring in the Daily Express and here is the headline."

"And who`s responsible? Well now apparently it`s Kashmiri men. So we`ve been through the Asians; we`ve targeted the Muslims; we`re now so desperate to keep people`s eye off white members of Parliament and white establishment abusers that we`re now going to blame it on Kashmiri men. But of course the headline is admitting that the scale of the abuse across the country is industrial. And what do the BBC say? `Well we just need to look at where some of these organisations got it wrong and learn some lessons`."

"Well this was a comment from Gavin Thomas, President of the Police Superintendents` Association and he confirms what we`ve just said: `There are so many paedophiles we can`t jail them all; so what we need to do is have a softer approach for lower levels of crime; and what he means by that is people viewing child pornography. But of course, as one of our correspondents pointed out, that in viewing child pornography, children are being abused in front of your very eyes. This policeman thinks, `well it`s much more important that we let some of these people off` and of course we certainly want to let off the politicians and senior establishment figures and senior police officers and military people involved in the abuse of children."

"Well the Sunday Times helped the process because it attacks Justice Goddard: `Pantomime Dame Out of her depth and out of a job.` They were crowing that the inquiry had lost its chairman. The Daily Mail got on board as well. `She didn`t resign, she was sacked` and essentially the article tries to point out that she was sort of not up for the job. I would believe that she was threatened to an extent she decided she was safer to leave it."

"But have a look at this because this takes the biscuit. A journalist called David Rose from the Mail; and he`s effectively saying that VIP child abuse is a scam. He says: `The ultra-million-pound industry run by lawyers seeking damages for abuse survivors has established a strong financial motive for those prepared to lie; and where police, politicians, and public inquiries have made clear that their bias is towards believing the victims, there is little risk of such perjury being exposed`."

"And on it goes: `Mrs May announced the formation of IICSA on the day after Leon Brittan was, we now know, falsely accused of rape. The febrile claims of VIP paedophile rings embracing not only sexual depravity but multiple child murders, peddled by the now-defunct website Exaro and, disgracefully, the BBC, followed switfly in its wake`."

"Unusually amongst journalists [Rose] has repeatedly drawn attention to the dangers of wrongful convictions for historic sex abuse, starting with a 2000 BBC Panorama programme which he reported and wrote: In the Name of the Children. Alex my opinion says that specialist people are being brought in, in order to help confuse the public and close down the notion that we have serious paedophile activity, not only in the BBC, but inside the British government. These people are carefully moved into position and their articles are carefully crafted to defend abusers. But what a statement that we might actually believe some of the child abuse victims ... I`m lost for words..."

"Clearly Brian, the public was believing the victims too much when they were speaking through, shall we say, ordinary journalists. And so a few of these specialists, as you call them, were brought in. ...And as we`ve heard described there with David Rose, he was unusual amongst journalists in pointing out that people had false memories or stood to gain financially. So things that hadn`t crossed journalists` heads when it was ordinary journalists reporting were suddenly inflated by a few of these placemen. So you can see what`s going on there."

"Well we can and let`s just force this point because we`ll bring in the Telegraph; and here it is. The headline there: `Now Dame Lowell has quit, the great child abuse inquiry should stop too`. Yes, let`s not investigate industrial scale child abuse. This is Charles Moore and this is what he says: `The accusation against Leon Brittan, Lord Bramall and the late Sir Edward Heath, which had moved Labour`s deputy leader, Tom Watson, to abuse parliamentary privilege and claim clear intelligence of a powerful paedophile network with links to Parliament and No 10 were discredited by` - here we are - `BBC Panorama and others`. `The massive industry of child abuse campaigners and lawyers`- It`s just about people making money - `For them the IICSA is a dream come true and in some cases a livelihood`."

"So we`ve got Charles Moore, the same ilk: let`s close down the child abuse inquiry. He can`t understand it apparently ... You have amongst others, senior police officers saying this is industrial scale abuse. UK Column has revealed a Metropolitan police officer talking about the cover-up of child abuse by politicians and senior police officers, but Mr Moore from the Telegraph doesn`t have the mental acumen to actually understand what`s going on."

"And then we can point out the deviousness of the whole inquiry because let`s remember what Justice Goddard said at the beginning. She said it was a statutory inquiry that will be entirely independent of government. That statement was completely untrue because the whole inquiry of course was closely controlled and monitored by Theresa May and the Home Office."

"Here`s Janner. And the Guardian is trying to claim that the Goddard inquiry is still going and it`s going to contact UK spies for any intelligence about the accusations made against Lord Janner. `British spies are to be approached by lawyers for the official child sex abuse inquiry requesting any intelligence gathered on the late Labour peer Greville Janner. Ben Emmerson QC, counsel to the independent inquiry [see the words being used, independent], `said his team had spoken to MI5 and will be contacting MI6 and GCHQ for any files held relating to Lord Janner.` And for those of you who like numbers: `There have mysteriously been 33 complainants in a total of 13 investigations`. This is complete nonsense, Alex, because of course if I just pop this one up on screen, I`ll then give you the stage, as it were."

"We`ve got an article from the Mirror which was reporting accurately that MI5 had essentially closed down an investigation into a paedophile; saying, `at the present stage the risk of political embarrassment to the Government is rather greater than the security danger.` And the Cabinet Office admitted that the risk to children wasn`t even considered. Are our Intelligence Services going to assist? Personally I don`t think so. But what do you think?"

"Well, even if they are minded to assist Brian the question is: how would they do it? I mean if you get an order as someone sitting at a desk in the Intelligence Agency to look through your files for mentions of Janner, then that would be just as it would be for Freedom of Information requests or Subject Access Requests made to an agency... So what people do; they do a quick search for the name and of course the name`s not there because this stuff`s in people`s heads or held on old files in the basement. It`s not on computer files that are used these days. So they just perform the quick search ... so obviously there`s going to be a blank return and the agency is going to say: `We have nothing on Janner.` But the question should be an intelligence approach, by sitting down the older and more senior members of the agencies and looking them in the eye and saying: `On your oath, do you know anything about Janner?` That`s how to do things properly but of course it`s not going to be done bureaucratically."

"Alex I can reinforce that comment because I was contacted a little while ago by a person who said that they had actually spoken to police who were forming the supposed inquiry into abuse allegations against Edward Heath. They gave a report about what was well known in the location of his home and they also - well they made a formal report. Now of course what they were saying was it was historical; it was hearsay. Nothing happened for months. But eventually they were contacted by a member of the police who said that they were there following up on what they had reported and during the conversation it emerged that the particular officer, a single police officer, was in a location with some fifty or sixty desks which were empty. He was the only person put forward to investigate Ted Heath and child abuse. And of course that enquiry went nowhere."

"But the government solution, as you`ve picked up... to stop child abuse we need to give children more sex education. And you`ve pushed out this Guardian article."

"I summarised what the authoress Vera Baird QC said as this: To stop children being debased, the State must debase them all in primary. And I think that`s a fair summary of what Vera Baird has said. If you remember this is the flame haired lady who was a Labour MP for Redcar in the Blair and Brown years and latterly she was the Solicitor General of Blair and Brown; and she has since become one of these police and crime commissioners of Northumbria and ... she chairs the Association of Police & Crime Commissioners.""And if you look at the Guardian author page for her you will see, among her arrogant poses to the camera, that her most recent piece before this was in January when she wrote: Whypolice and crime commissioners are here to stay. First line of that is: `As a police and crime commissioner for Northumbria I oversee the budget; I make savings of £2.9 million and I hold the Chief Constable to account and I scrutinise services and I engage with the community. So we`re getting more of a hint now, that is the correct mould of person who intends to become a PCC. UK Column has found out that the PCCs are unsackable. Of course, in a couple of counties people have elected a non-establishment candidate which we are not supposed to do and if that happens you have relentless attacks on them... it was intended to become a police and crime commission to steer the police the right way.""And from her vantage point of authority, I`m reading out now from the article in question where she`s looking up at the camera in a sassy pose and she`s saying that she has this coalition behind her to make sex education obligatory in primary, including religious schools. She has got the Commons Education Committee, the Commons Home Affairs Committee, the chairs for the Women for Equalities, Health and for Business Innovation and Skills, the Children`s Commissioner for England; and they`re strongly in favour; and the Chief Medical Officer, the Labour front bench, two royal societies, six medical royal colleges, all the teaching unions and my Association of Police & Crime Commissioners. So who could we possibly be, to say that we do not want our children to be taught about sexual parts at age six?"

"Indeed, and if we want to look at some political zealot we better go to north of the border. We`ve got Nippy, Nicola Sturgeon here, and let`s just remind ourselves. This is the lady who did not want to go near the Brian and Janice Docherty case where a couple have four children removed from them, not because they`ve committed any crime, not because they`ve abused their children or harmed those children or neglected those children in any way, but simply because they dared to report the approach of a paedophile. And the response from Ms Sturgeon - well she ran for cover - and gave the dirty deal to her Head of Media, Aileen Easton; and Ms Easton was simply prepared to put out a line, and the line is that Nicola Sturgeon doesn`t intervene in individual cases. Very strange, but in Scotland in particular we can see the First Minister not wanting to go near anything to do with exposing paedophiles."----------------------------------

The discussion then turns to atheism and social research, with a particular emphasis on Scotcen.

About Me

I must admit that if I had to do it all over again I`d probably do it a whole lot differently. For a start, I would never have planted that climbing rose on the fence next to the path. It sure began to annoy my neighbour when they scraped past it on their way to their own plot, and it was impossible to weed at its base when Spring came and everything started to sprout. The thorns were deadly.

I would never have planted that willow tree - never knew they could grow THAT fast, certainly not in the top left corner overhanging the fence between me and the plot holder in front of me. Grows beautifully, blooms wonderfully, and then cuts out the sun, so they wanted to chop it down.

The ivy around my hut was a bit of a disaster. It seemed romantic at the time but it spreads fast, weaves its way between cracks and clings on ferociously. How do you throw it back, chop it down,

drag it out, without destroying your hut? Meanwhile it is slowly destroying your hut an inch at a time.